Have you ever seen a multilingual learner pause at the end of each line while reading a passage rather than at the natural pauses signaled by commas and periods?  Or a multilingual student who stumbles over pronunciation? Did you assume that the lack of fluency meant a lack of comprehension? 

Fluency is often the last skill that multilingual learners obtain when it comes to reading although it is one of the first skills we, as educators, tend to harp upon. Bilingual and multilingual students are often far more focused on meaning making than they are on pronunciation, expression, and fluency.

That said, we should build students’ fluency while recognizing the comprehension skills they may have already attained and building upon those skills as well.

Here are 5 ways to enhance fluency + a bonus:

1. Have students continue to practice reading aloud passages at grade level or above. While the first time students read, they may stop at the end of each line to check for understanding or struggle with pronunciation of certain words, the second and subsequent times, they can practice their fluency.
2. Engage in Reader’s Theatre. Reader’s Theatre is a play where rather than students memorizing lines, they are reading them aloud in front of their classmates and potentially others after ample practice. The focus is on the reading rather than on props, sets, or costumes. When having students participate in Reader’s Theatre, choose texts at grade level or above. Have students help each other with comprehension (without translating) and then, have them work on expression and punctuation so that they can read their lines fluently during the production.
3. Group writing.  Write a paragraph together as a class about the grade level content being learned, read it aloud to the class once, and then have students choral read the reading. 
4. Sing published songs. Have students listen to songs.  The first day, work on the comprehension of the lyrics, listening to the music a couple of times. For the rest of the week, ensure comprehension and have students practice singing along. The last day, test through cloze reading of the lyrics. Look for lyrics that are above grade level.
5. Have students practice reading out loud to each other. Nothing helps enhance fluency more than practice. Let students read out loud to one another at grade level or above depending upon their comprehension levels.

***  Bonus Tip: Read aloud to your students at grade level or above so that they can hear fluent reading. Just hearing you will help enhance their fluency.

Remember that in all of these examples, you are choosing texts that are at grade level or above depending upon your students’ comprehension levels.  And be sure not to use fluency as a guide to students’ comprehension levels but ask actual questions about their reading. And if indeed students are not at grade-level, scaffold up so that students are growing through productive struggle and soon, your students will be amazing readers in each of the languages in which you are providing them instruction.